Abstract :
Sayyid Mīr Muḥammad Bāqir Khātūnābādī (d. 1715) was the first Safavid mullā-bāshī. He achieved unrivalled prominence in the court of Shāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn, the last effective Safavid ruler. A number of scholars have documented his influence on the shah, but little has been written on Khātūnābādī himself. Khātūnābādī had several overlapping careers: he was Shāh Sulṭān ˌusayn’s advisor in religious matters and the head of religious scholars, as well as the rector and teacher of the Madrasa-yi Sulṭānī. In addition to these responsibilities, he authored a number of treatises and translated works from Arabic into Persian, including a glossed translation of the Gospels. This paper explores Khātūnābādī’s educational and intellectual formation as far as the sources permit, linking him to the institutions and ideas that he represented. It also analyzes the socio-political role he played in the troubled milieu of early eighteenth-century Iran. This more comprehensive examination of the life and career of Khātūnābādī affords us a new perspective on the conditions of the religious and scholarly community in early modern Iran.